Secondary market research tools and issues

This research focuses on data or information that was collected by other people and is available for either free or paid use for others. Secondary market research takes into account many different sources for collection of information including government data, office data, newspapers, magazines, the internet, etc.

One of the benefits of doing secondary market research is that it is mostly free and takes a lot less time. Qualitative research. Some common examples of qualitative research work include doing face to face interviews, being part of focus groups, etc.

Quantitative research. Quantitative market research is a kind of market research work that is based on hard facts and statistical data rather than the feelings and opinions of the customers or consumers. This type of research can prove useful both in terms of primary market research and secondary market research.

Some of the common examples of quantitative research include exit surveys, questionnaires, on-site fieldwork and the shopping bag survey. In fact, another example of quantitative research includes researching of the previously existing financial reports, research papers. This type of research comes out with a wide range of statistics and helps to find out the size of the market as well. The following are the five Primary market research techniques that are most commonly used and applied:.

Focus groups. One of the main ways used to conduct primary market research is through focus groups. This method involves getting a group of people in a room or a place and asking them insightful questions regarding the product, its development, their preferences, and feedback, etc.

These types of focus groups can be run or conducted at any location feasible for the company or business. These days, with advancements in technology and the internet, it is possible to conduct them virtually as well, through the method of video conferencing. But the main thing here is that the group of people brought together have something in common, for example, either they should belong to the same age group, the same gender and so on.

This division of the group or the selection process must depend on the audience targeted or the product of service of the company. Participants in such focus groups are then compensated by either free coupons, vouchers, gifts or money, etc.

Focus groups fall under the qualitative research method and help businesses know a lot about customer or market trends. Surveys and questionnaires. Another superb and highly effective way to conduct primary market research is through surveys and questionnaires. One of the most common examples of this research method is the feedback form given to customers at the time of billing at a restaurant. Surveys are also conducted in the form of web questionnaires these days that enable businesses to collect a lot of feedback and then analyze it for further administration.

There are two major observation techniques or research methods used in primary market research, and they are observation through interaction and communication with the subject and observation through no interaction and communication with the subject. This form of research method comes under the quantitative primary research since through it; researchers evaluate or measure the behavior of the respondents or the users in general.

This is more of a personal approach in comparison to surveys and questionnaires, etc. Trials and experimentation. This method of primary research involves scientific tests where hypotheses and variables, etc. This is a quantitative type of market research which may either be controlled out in the field or within controlled environments.

In order to understand this form of research, here is an example that you can refer to: A food product company created 3 different food packaging styles and then sold the products to different consumers. Data in the form of hardcopies should be kept in safe locked cabinets whereas softcopies should be kept as encrypted files in computers. It is the responsibility of the researcher conducting the secondary analysis to ensure that further analysis of the data conducted is appropriate.

In some cases there is provision for analysis of secondary data in the original consent form with the condition that the secondary study is approved by the ethics review committee.

However it also says that consent is not a once-and-for-all event, but is subject to renegotiation over time 3. It appears that there are no guidelines about the specific conditions that require further consent. In qualitative research, the culture of data archiving is absent 4. However, the best practice is to plan anonymisation at the time of initial transcription.

A log of all replacements, aggregations or removals should be made and stored separately from the anonymised data files. But because of the circumstances, under which qualitative data is produced, their reinterpretation at some later date can be challenging and raises further ethical concerns. There is a need for formulating specific guidelines regarding re-use of data, data protection and anonymisation and issues of consent in secondary data analysis.

National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Iran J Public Health. Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer. Received Oct 20; Accepted Nov 5. This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Background Research does not always involve collection of data from the participants. Secondary data analysis Secondary analysis refers to the use of existing research data to find answer to a question that was different from the original work 2.

Issues in Secondary data analysis Concerns about secondary use of data mostly revolve around potential harm to individual subjects and issue of return for consent. Issues in Secondary analysis of Qualitative data In qualitative research, the culture of data archiving is absent 4. The shares of organizations that are making profits are quoted at high prices and are traded actively so that it becomes easy to raise fresh capital.

The secondary market enables better allocation of capital to profitable channels. The secondary market indirectly promotes capital formation and has a say in the economic growth of a country. As the securities are traded, the savings get channelized into investment avenues. This results in capital formation.

The secondary market offers scope for speculation in a controlled manner within legal boundaries. It seems very lucrative to an investor as you can trade for the short term and earn some quick money.

It offers opportunities for both savings and investment to an investor. There are two types of the secondary market which have been described below-.

An OTC market is considered a decentralized place where the members trade amongst themselves. The competition to get higher volumes is fierce; hence, the price of securities differs from one to another seller. The interested parties deal on a one-to-one basis with each other, so the counterparty risk is much higher if compared with Exchanges.

In this marketplace, you will not find any direct contact between the two main parties, the seller and the buyer. Heavy regulations are in place to make it a safe zone for trading securities.